§ Our Motto

'If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.?--Martin Luther

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Top Ten Reasons to Support John McCain

10. One Term President
9. Strict Constructionist judges like Justice David Souter
8. What border fence?
7. 30-days of silence before election
6. Carbon tax
5. Favored tax cuts before he voted against them
4. Foot soldier in Reagan Revolution—advance to general via Republican maneuver called Circular Firing Squad. *
3. McCain exists only to torment Rush Limbaugh
2. Makes me miss Bob Dole
1. Thinks Hilary Clinton would make a good president.

* Circular Firing Squad is moderate Republican formation where you wound or damage as many fellow Republicans as possible before unilaterally surrendering republican values and joining with Liberal Democrats for sake of bipartisanship.

This action returned Michigan to an “open” primary system whereby a registered voter would be issued the ballots of both parties and the voter would select the party primary in which he or she wished to participate in the privacy of the voting station.

The potential candidates’ names on the combined lists prepared by the Secretary of State and the political parties would automatically have their names printed on the ballot under the designated party heading unless the named individual filed an affidavit indicating that he or she did not wish to have his or her name printed on the ballot or wished to be printed on the ballot under a different party heading.

This gives Michigan voters a free hand to vote for any candidate from any party in the primaries. Thus, in theory, Republicans can select the Democrat nominee while Democrats can help select the Republican nominee. This is one of the results when liberals run the show; anything to dilute the vote.

The Michigan sample ballot lists all Republican candidates but only a few Democrats. Hillary Clinton is the only top tier candidate listed. Other Democrats include Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich. If you support Barack Obama, you won’t even find him listed on the ballot! Obama is telling supporters to vote Uncommitted. Uncommitted is Michigan’s choice for those wishing to vote for none of the above.

The Democrats are on the horns of several dilemmas. First, they are crosswise with their national party. The official position of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is that any states holding a primary prior to February fifth will not have its delegates seated at the summer convention. Lucky for Michigan, this same threat also applies to the Florida primary. Michigan is rightly asserting that after the Bush v Gore fiasco of 2000, there is no way in hell that Florida won’t have their votes counted by Democrats. They assert that if Florida must be counted then their votes must be included also.

Ironically, it is due to the conflict with the national party that Obama asked to have is name taken off of the ballot! He followed the rules but Hillary decided that she was exempt.

Another dilemma is that it appears that in order to neutralize Clinton, the choice of Uncommitted must get more votes than she does. Should Uncommitted win, not only would this allow Michigan a way out of sanctions by the national party but it would be viewed as a victory by Obama. Delegates to the national convention would then likely be selected by the Michigan Democratic Party at a later date.

The third Democrat dilemma is the chance to tamper in the Republican primary. Democrats could cast votes for such Republican luminaries as John McCain or Mike Huckabee since they would be easiest to beat in November. Yeah, choose your opponent. What a country!

It is curious that no third party candidates are listed on the sample ballot. Where are the Greens, Constitution Party and all the rest? Apparently, they can be ignored because they don’t get a big enough percentage of the vote or they are chosen via a method other than a primary election.

Democrats have a mess on their hands. It may be the only thing that keeps Michigan in play for Republicans like Mitt Romney.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Iowa

Iowa

Wow! The Huckster scored big tonight. I am surprised that he did so well. The question is was a vote for Huckabee really a vote for him or a protest vote against the elites in the Party telling us to pick Rudy or Mitt?

Huckabee has repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance of foreign affairs and economics. Evangelicals seem to be ignoring policy for values. As Rush Limbaugh calls it “identity politics.” This was the same irrational logic that gave Jimmy Carter the evangelical vote in 1976. Both 1976 and the current campaign were preceded by Republican failure inside the “beltway”—especially domestically.

Voters in both parties seem to be favoring Washington outsiders. (Yeah, Obama is a Senator but two years in DC is more of an outsider than Hillary Clinton. Ditto for Edwards.) I think the voters are sick of the gridlock in Congress. Can you say “where’s the Federal budget?”

Romney seems to have buried folks in Iowa with media and mail and a few folks that Fox News aired tonight said they we tired of the blitz by such a well funded campaign. I think Mitt is still stuck with a believability gap. His record does not match his rhetoric however well-crafted or targeted his message may be. Until Mitt can have a convincing story of why he had a change of heart on virtually every social issue and many fiscal ones as well, he will not win many evangelicals.

This leaves Fred Thompson and Huckabee to fight over most of the evangelicals and Rudy, Mitt and McCain to fight over the rest.

Rudy did worse than I thought he would. I thought he would at least score in low double digits. Rudy needs to show better in the next few contests or he may not survive until February.

McCain will start fading after New Hampshire. His support is not from the Republican base but independents. The real question is will anti-Hillary voting move people to boost Obama and end Hillary’s presidential aspirations. Such a move would hurt McCain. If McCain can’t deliver up to his expectations via many independent voters going for him, he will find his last ride on the “straight talk express” to be a short one.

The concept of a brokered convention has inched closer to reality; however remote.